An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

A few years ago a friend of mine introduced me to a show called “Three Sheets”.  In it the host, Zane Lamprey, traveled around the world drinking in random places, dressing like they do (sort of), and trying the local hangover cure.

I loved it.  It was funny, it showcased some really cool stuff, and most of all, it seemed real – he was actually getting wasted, versus some shows where the host is holier than thou.

I ended up buying the DVDs of it and was disappointed when it went off the air.  Well, it really didn’t – MOJO HD, the channel that carried it, did.

Fortunately, it got picked up elsewhere.  Fine Living Network, in fact, which I might get, but I don’t have a DVR and really don’t watch TV any more except for sports and the occasional run of History Channel, Discovery Channel, or Military History Channel.  Or some USA marathons, but I’m more embarrassed to admit that.

Then earlier this week I got an e-mail from a nice lady named Wendy saying that the Travel Channel was going to start airing Three Sheets on April 14th at 11 PM EDT, featuring back to back episodes.  I’m more likely to be playing Borderlands or wallowing in my own self-misery to actually remember to watch at that time, but there’s a great chance that someone else might, or that I might even get off my ass, pay the $16 and activate the DVR on my machine so I can watch it and play the Three Sheets drinking game.

(Don’t know how to play it?  Here’s how:  GO DRINK.  No, wait, there are more expansive rules but I’m too lazy to write them here.  Go here and read them.  They make more sense if you’ve seen the show.)

I feel weird posting without a drink, so without bothering to figure out what it’d taste like first, I’m going to make up a Three Sheets cocktail off the top of my head.  It seems like it should be strong.  Later, maybe, I’ll think up a Zane Lamprey one.

The Three Sheets
1.5 ounces gin
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse
1/2 ounce Benedictine
1/4 ounce Fernet Branca
Stir – though I’d shake it – and strain.

Bwahahahaha!  Now the ultimatum.

ZANE LAMPREY I’M CALLING YOU OUT!  You’re coming to DC on June 4th, right?  I don’t know if you’re filming Three Sheets around then, but let me say:  You need to come to the capital of the United States for Three Sheets and you need me, SeanMike, to take you around.  (And yes, Marshall to help.)  I am confident in my liver to stand up to you.

OR ARE YOU TOO CHICKEN?

We shall see!

EDIT 04/21/2010: it’s on tonight, too! Woo to the hoo. Tune in if you can. And Zane, I’m still waiting!

I know that The Den has been a little quiet as of late.  Things have been hectic for the last couple of weeks, however life seems to have slowed back to a normal pace and I’m confident you’ll be seeing much more activity from your two Scofflaw’s.

With that said, Mixology Monday is again upon us and the lovely ladies of LUPEC Boston are hosting.   The chosen theme this month is “First Time.”  The theme is inspired by a past experience Ms. Pink Lady had with a cocktail newbie.  She states,

“What drink do you suggest for the delicate palate of the cocktail neophyte? Something boozy and balanced, sure – but one wrong suggestion could relegate the newbie to a beer-drinker’s life. To which go-to cocktails do you turn to when faced with the challenge?”

It is a very interesting conundrum.  I have a few friends who definitely fall into the “cocktail neophyte” category.  Either they “don’t like gin” or are strictly beer or wine drinkers, and one, amazingly, “can’t drink brown spirits.”  To be honest, it is very difficult to make drinks for these folks.  It seems they have preconcieved biases towards certain spirits that is seemingly all mental.  The trick for me is making cocktails that are flavorful, complex, balanced and uses the ingredient they supposedly don’t like.  I’m completely up front with what I’m serving them, and in most instances they have enjoyed the drinks.

One of my favorite cocktails, which is also one I like to give people new to gin or new to cocktails is the Shanghai Gin.

Shanghai Gin
Gin
Yellow Chartreuse
Benedictine
Lemon Juice

Shake equal measures of the four ingredients until ice cold.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.  For a small extra kick, flame the peel.

The Shanghai Gin combines a sweet, savory, tart profile all in one little gin cocktail.   Everyone I’ve made the cocktail for has enjoyed it.

On the other hand, in order to introduce a neophyte to the wonderful world of cocktails, I think a well made highball can be just what the scofflaw ordered.  A gin and tonic, rum and coke, ginger beer and anything, all are good examples as long they are well made and balanced.  In each highball you can vary the type of spirit (london dry v. old tom; silver rum v. gold v. demerarra v. crap-there-are-a-lot-of-rum-types; etc.) or add modifiers such as a splash of lime, a flavored syrup or a muddle of herbs.  Many different variations can teach the new imbiber the importance of balance, creativity and variety.  Just the tools someone needs when walking down the path of potent potables.

Thanks again to Pink Lady and the women of LUPEC – Boston for hosting this installment of MxMo.

Cheers!

The theme for this month’s Mixology Monday was “Broaden Your Horizons”.  The first one for 2009, it’s being hosted by The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram.  So, before I forget – thanks “The Scribe” for hosting this month!

It was kind of a tough topic.  Basically, The Scribe wanted us to think of an ingredient or technique we hadn’t used before and explore it.  I don’t want to act all jaded and like “oh, you know, I’ve been there and done that, har!”  But I was also like “uhh…what to do?”

That’s ’cause I’m typically the type of guy that if there’s something I want to try I just go ahead and try it.  I do the same thing with buying stuff, so it makes me hard to buy presents for, I’ve been told.

There’s one recipe however that I found in Harry Johnson’s classic bar guide that I’ve been wanting to try mostly for one big reason: it uses an egg yolk.  Not the white…just the yolk.

He has pictures in his book of various drinks and there’s one picture of a layered drink with an egg yolk in it so I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.  I had the liquor ingredients – green Chartreuse, maraschino, and Benedictine – so I went to the store, bought a fresh batch of eggs, and got ready to make the drink!

The recipe:

Widow’s Kiss
(Use a medium size wine glass)

1 yolk of a fresh egg;
1/3 glass of maraschino;
1/3 glass of green chartreuse;
1/3 glass of benedictine, and serve.

(Courtesy of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved (Illustrated) Bartender’s Manual and a Guide for Hotels and Restaurants, copyrighted 1900, reprinted 2008 by Mud Puddle Books.)

Wow.  Hit a few issues right away.  I didn’t have a great cordial glass for this (like the ones in Harry’s illustrations).  I wasn’t certain how much to use of each liquor and couldn’t be bothered to look that up in something like David Wondrich’s Imbibe!.  I also wasn’t certain which order to layer them in because Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology only had Benedictine listed of those three drinks.  His book did list ingredients in order to layer them in so I figured, hey, what the heck, I’ll try it that way.

But before I actually made the drink, I thought I’d get the yolk out first.  The first egg I managed to break the yolk of and so I didn’t want to use it.  The second egg I was much more careful with and the yolk was intact.

Then it was a glass.  I ended up grabbing a tasting glass from Horton vineyards; it was one of the smaller glasses I have and it seemed like it’d be a good shape and size for the drink.  It holds six ounces, so in a bout of not-thinking-things-through-completely (see below) I decided to use one ounce of each liquor.

Grabbing my bar spoon and measuring glass, I poured out the drink.  I put the maraschino in first, then the yolk – basing that off some random thing I’d read during the day – then the Chartreuse and last the Benedictine.  Looking at the picture, it might’ve been the wrong order to do them in.

But the drink looked neat!

As you might be able to tell, the chartreuse appeared to float up to the top right away.  The egg yolk didn’t stay perfectly in the middle – there might’ve been a bit of egg white left – but hey, I thought it looked kind of cool.

Then I realized something.

How in the name of Captain Tightpants was I supposed to drink this monstrosity?!

I took a sip off the top and really, that just gets you Chartreuse.  Not that I mind a nice dose of Chartreuse, but it wasn’t going to work (particularly when I’d get to the maraschino – ick!).

So I manned up, took a deep breath, and drank that #%()!-ing thing in one long pull.

THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO DO AND DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU USE SMALLER PORTIONS.

Let me reiterate that:

DO NOT DO THAT.

My eyes watered.  My throat choked up.  I haven’t reacted that poorly to a shot in a long, long time.

I can’t even tell you what it tasted like – let’s just say, uh, wow, it was intense, and I would consider trying it again if I made it smaller.  (And if you want to make a “that’s what she said” joke, go for it, just … well, that’s the kind of thing that’d happen more likely maybe over in the Mixoloseum chat room, I’d bet.)

While I had gone through all that I’d made up a new batch of simple syrup.  This syrup I was going to modify a bit.

You see, I love vanilla.  I don’t know when that happened – I guess as I grew up, I discovered a big love for vanilla.  Kind of like when I realized that my favorite color was no longer black or blue (emo SeanMike for the win!) but red.  Weird.  And — I’ve never used vanilla simple syrup in a cocktail.

I tried my best to polish off my demerara sugar and let it cool off as a simple syrup then I added some Penzey’s double strength vanilla extract.

It cooled, I added an ounce or so of 100 proof vodka to help preserve it and add in about 1/4 of an ounce or so of the vanilla.  Tasting it straight, I thought it tasted pretty vanilla so I decided to try a drink with it.

In the middle of my debates inside the aforementioned chat room, wondering what to make with it (and getting very good suggestions from Stevi for dacquiris and French 75s) a horde of future in-laws showed up and I was forced to shut down my computer rapidly less they see some of the less-than-family friendly site titles in my Windows bar.  DARN YOU VISTA!

I thumbed my way through The Joy of Mixology and through Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails before suddenly thinking: HEY!  A Sazerac!

You know how I love a Sazerac.

I grabbed my Old Overholt, the Peychaud’s bitters, my little dripper bottle of absinthe, and a lemon.

If you know my favorite recipe for a Sazerac, you know how I made it.

Sazerac

3 ounces rye
3/4 ounce simple syrup
2 solid dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Mix the rye, simple syrup, and Peychaud’s over ice.  Rinse out a chilled rocks glass with absinthe, dump out the absinthe, and strain the stirred mixture into the glass.  Squeeze a lemon peel over it and toss out the lemon peel.

(Recipe based off Gary Regan’s in The Joy of Mixology.)

The drink wasn’t bad – though the vanilla tones to it were really wiped out after the bitters and rye.  I might need to add more extract to the mixture.

But before I do that, I’ll probably have to go ahead and make a French 75.

I’m sure it’ll be delicious.

Anyways, thanks again to The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram for hosting this month.  Me, I’m going to walk back over to my precious, precious vanilla syrup.  What?  You want me to mix you up with an egg yolk in a some kind of layered drink that doesn’t have the same ingredients as before?  Hmmmm….

When I first heard the theme of this month’s MxMo I was a bit worried. I didn’t know what I’d want to do – something classic, like the Manhattan or Sazerac, or maybe try to convert something out of the Harry Johnson’s bar guide that Marshall got me for my birthday? What the heck is Martell brandy anyways?

Then I realized that MxMo in September would be on the 15th. If all is as it should be, I’ll be on my way back from NYC that day, and so on a very rainy day I decided that I would make some drinks and see what we can do.

I started thumbing through Ted Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_ and found something that I thought looked really interesting.

The recipe was a bit more complicated than I expected.

Fred Collins Fiz
2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey (I used Bulleit)
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
1/2 glass of finely shaved (or crushed) ice
1 teaspoon orange Curacao (Cointreau for me)
6 ounces lemonade (Simply Lemonade)
Mix everything but the lemonade and the Curacao in an iced cocktail shaker. Strain into a bar glass. Add the Curacao to the bar glass. Pour the lemonade into a collins glass, then add the contents of the bar glass to the collins glass.

Cathy might be sleeping so I didn’t want to be too noisy, and after all, my ice situation is usually fairly poor. So I skipped the shaved ice and made up the drink – though at one point I poured the Curacao too early into a teaspoon, so I just drank it straight and re-poured it when I needed it.

The drink reminded me a lot of a Lynchburg Lemonade, something that Dr. Cocktail notes in his description of it as well. I’d picked out the Bulleit because it said bourbon or rye and the Bulleit has a lot of rye notes to it. I’m debating if maybe I should’ve used Creole Shrubb rather than the Cointreau; I wouldn’t mind a stronger hint of orange to it. Maybe a bit of orange bitters…

But, after all, it’s fall. Bourbon is the traditional UVA drink during the fall, at least in my group of friends, and the three ways we often drank it was mixed with Coke, made into a bourbon sour, or made as a Lynchburg Lemonade by adding it straight to lemonade.

This drink is nice. I’m wondering how much the preparation matters (other than the lemonade) and if you could add some club soda or even lemon-lime soda to make it a bit bubblier. But it’s going right on down and definitely making me feel better!

The next drink I wanted to try is a Widow’s Kiss. I’ve seen the recipe a number of times but never made it, but moreso, it calls for green Chartreuse.

I have a bottle of green, and all I’ve used it for is shots. When Marshall and I were out at a rather cool bar the Sunday night before Labor Day I was talking to the bartenders and pointed out that I’d never made a drink with Chartreuse in it. I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

The Widow’s Kiss is noted to originally have called for green but yellow mellows it down. Screw yellow. I’m going green. If it worked in the first publication in 1895 it will work now.

The Widow’s Kiss
1 1/2 ounces Calvados
3/4 ounce Chartreuse
3/4 ounce Benedictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Dr. Cocktail is very adamant that you can NOT replace the Calvados with applejack. What I started wondering was whether or not you could replace it with the Laird’s 7 1/2 year old Apple Brandy or Clear Creek apple brandy.

Well, if I said I didn’t have any Clear Creek around I’d be lying – more truthfully, I couldn’t be bothered to find it. So, in the spirit of experimentation, I didn’t use applejack – but I did use the Laird’s Old Apple Brandy.

I made them both at the same time. I don’t have a bright red maraschino cherry like Dr. Cocktail uses in his picture, nor did I use yellow Chartreuse – so mine was darker and I just had a maraschino soaked sweet cherry above it.

He was right.

The Chartreuse was very evident in both of them, but the one with the Calvados was more balanced. With the Laird’s, the brandy floated into the background and just left green Chartreuse moderated only by a bit of Benedictine.

Of the two drinks, the Fred Collins Fiz is definitely one I wouldn’t making on a regular basis and perhaps experimenting with more.  This weekend, at the San Gerrano Feast in NYC, I had San Pelligrino Limonata and that might make for an interesting change to the drink.

The Widow’s Kiss was good, but to me, it almost seemed more like a shooter of some sort.  I’ll also have to try it with Yellow Chartreuse, either while visiting Marshall or after buying my own bottle finally.  Harry Johnson, in the last recipe page of his bartender’s guide, has a similar recipe that’s 1/3rd each ingredient (using green Chartreuse) and the yolk of an egg, and I’m definitely going to make that sometime soon – I, of course, will let y’all know how that goes, especially as it seems like a layered drink.

Until then – happy MxMo!